Unrequested Rebirth
by ecarden
Summary: Jack thought he'd finally beaten Sloane. He underestimated Rambaldi's power. So he ended up in a new world, filled with new challenges, new friends and new obstacles. It's a shame all he cares about is his oldest enemy.
1. Chapter 1: Falling

**Chapter 1: Falling**

 **Author's Note: Italics are thoughts. I own none of it. Much of the dialogue is stolen from RWBY, volume 1.**

Pain burned through him, as life leaked from him. It wasn't so bad. He'd hurt worse. Radiation poisoning, electrocution, beatings, cuts, gunshots, interrogations and interrogation drugs, oh, and, of course, Irina…

But it wasn't that which kept him standing, it was the certainty that he finally had the bastard. Well, that and the pillar he was leaning against. He brought the explosives out and smirked at his oldest friend and oldest enemy.

"What are you doing?" Arvin asked, hands moving to where a weapon was undoubtedly concealed. That was surprising. The former CIA officer had always thought manipulation was his best weapon, not that it had stopped him from putting bullets in Jack's chest to force his daughter to hand over the Rambaldi artifact.

The other man's immortality wasn't really a surprise. Arvin's constant denial that immortality was what he sought had made Jack certain that immortality was one step on the road of Arvin's obsessions. "You beat death Arvin, but you couldn't beat me," he said with a smirk, finger moving to blow the C4 and bring down the crypt atop them.

Arvin's hand moved too, but it would be too slow to bring out a gun. It would have been. If it had been a gun. "Wrong," Arvin whispered as he touched the Rambaldi device at the same moment Jack triggered his explosives.

The world vanished in a brilliant flash of white.

And then he was falling. And screaming. Jack forced himself to stop screaming and examine his surroundings. A forest was beneath him, but he was following a curved path, so he hadn't fallen from a plane, but appeared to have been hurled with great force. Automatically he twisted into the proper position and reached for the line to deploy his parachute.

Which, of course, he was not wearing. _Shit_. _This is going to hurt_. Those were not helpful thoughts, but the rest of his mind was busy trying to come up with a way out of falling and, when that failed, attempting to figure out what had happened. Jack did not believe in any afterlife. If he was wrong, always a possibility, (however remote, in his own opinion) then it still wasn't like any afterlife he'd ever heard of. The answer hit him like a flash, like the canopy of the vast forest beneath him was going to any moment, _Rambaldi, that sick mother-_

Just as he hit the canopy and prepared to attempt to slow his fall with smaller branches, a powerful force jerked him sideways, arresting his fall and slamming him somewhat more gently then he expected against the trunk of a tree, maybe fifteen feet in the air. When he got his breath back, he took a quick inventory. No injuries. His arms were wearing rather different material than the remnants of the uniform he'd been wearing. Brown gloves, red shirt. His body felt heavy, as if he were wearing the modern body armor, with the ceramic plates, and a weight pulled down left side. A quick touch of his hand identified it as a blade, sheathed, long enough to hit mid-calf. _A sword? What the fuck?_

It fit with the unbelievable fact that a scarlet spear was holding him to the tree by his collar. That was a truly incredible toss by someone he couldn't even see. And he was unarmed, except for a sword. And dangling helplessly from a tree.

 _There's a branch, if I swing back and forth, I can get a leg over it, then I just need to pull_. It was harder than it should have been. Embarrassingly so. It was even more embarrassing that he had to wiggle the spear free to claim a second weapon. This body was weak. But, it lacked the twinges he was used to. Bruises were already forming on his back from the impact with the tree, but usually his knees and back would be whining at him already, but they were oddly silent. As was the forest at large.

A bush shuddered and Jack slid silently along the branch until he was out of view and pulled back the spear, taking careful aim. He was completely unprepared for a white-haired woman dressed all in white, including a puffy white skirt, with only a slender sword for protection. _All white in the woods, how does she keep it clean?_

His original thought that she was a woman (based on her white hair) faded away as a younger girl, _Fuck me, it's Little Red Riding Hood!_ followed her out of the forest, "But we're supposed to be partners, Weiss, you heard what the headmaster said!" her tone was all too familiar to Jack. Sydney had used it a lot as a child. There were rules and rules needed to be followed, damnit!

The white haired girl, Weiss, bickered with her fellow about their partnership, whether their eyes had actually met and something about explosions that Jack didn't follow. His eyes and front-brain automatically analyzed the interaction, noting Weiss was clearly older and higher status, _Arrogant, rich girl, but with the callouses of a fighter and the confidence of a champion. That scar around her eye didn't come from any accident either, not the way she flaunts it._ Red, whose name had yet to be said, was arguing gamely, _Prodigy, too young for her job, like that boy at Berlin Polytechnic, smart, but easily manipulated_. _If necessary, set them on each other and escape in the confusion._ While his front-brain took care of that, his back-brain considered something else.

 _If I'm here, so is Sloan. None of my stuff came through, so his probably didn't either. Which means he'll need a way back from…wherever this is. For that he'll need another Rambaldi device. If one brought us here, there might be more around. If not…Sloan's the expert on Rambaldi, he might be able to recreate the device. No,_ his smile would have chilled the blood of anyone who knew him as Jack Bristow, _I won't allow that to happen._

Before his mind could go further down that path, Red chose to argue that she was too useful, by demonstrating her weapon, and pulled a red device from the small of her back, only for it unfold into a giant scythe, which, the girl eagerly explained, was also a sniper rifle. _Okay. So. Definitely not on Earth. Fucking Rambaldi._

Their quarrelling almost covered the sound of someone/something approaching from another angle. Jack considered the available cover and concluded it would prevent him from being seen from that angle as well. He twisted slightly to keep both groups in sight.

"Juane?" a female voice called as she slid through the brushes without a rustle.

Both of the other girls spun to face the noise, weapons coming down, the disagreement of a moment before gone, though they each tried to move into prime striking position and ended up jostling each other awkwardly. Then they recognized the speaker, "Pyrrha!" Weiss squealed, "I'm so glad you're the first person my eyes met!"

"HEY!" Red jumped up and down as Jack examined the newcomer. Tall, strong, wearing scarlet and with red hair, fortunately Weiss had given the girl a name, or he'd have been stuck with Red-2. _Warrior. Strong. Had to be strong. Confident. Issues with socialization. Isolation, perhaps? Skilled. Dangerous. If necessary, strike from behind, without warning._

"Isn't Ruby your partner?" Pyrrha asked, confused.

"Well…"

"YES!"

Weiss tried to cover Ruby's mouth and the two degenerated into what Jack would have called a slap fight, if there had been any slapping involved.

"Have either of you seen Juane? I'm sure he came down somewhere over here," Pyrrha said, looking up at the tree.

 _Oh. So I'm John, am I? Well, could be worse. Considering some of the names SD6 and the CIA gave me…_ His lips quirked slightly, before he could force them flat again. _Has been worse, in fact._

He considered his options. It did not take long. The spear clearly matched the girl's armor and she was looking for someone male who 'came down' in this area. It wasn't a 100%, but it was better odds than he often had to play. "Hello," he said, rising to be visible above the leaves.

"Juane!" Pyrrha crossed her arms and grinned up at him. _Attracted to me. Possible manipulation point._ "So, you have any spots left on your team?" _The other two are supposed to be partners…because they met each other's eyes? Possible._

He lifted the spear, "Given that you saved my life, I think the question is if you have a spot on your team for me?"

Disappointment filled her eyes, though she didn't stop smiling. _Odd reaction, didn't want to be in charge?_ "Sure thing."

"Oh, good, it's Vomit Boy," Weiss snapped, staring up at him, clearly disgruntled she hadn't known he was there. "Adding eavesdropping to your list of habits?"

Jack was surprised to feel himself growing angry. The words of this arrogant child didn't matter one bit to him, but his idiot (and he was beginning to expect, probably also adolescent) body didn't want to agree with that proposition. Still, he'd mastered his temper long ago. _Usually_. And so, he simply dropped the spear straight down. She didn't have to jump out of the way, it would have missed regardless. Probably.

The slide down the tree trunk made him grateful that this body came equipped with armor, as it clearly lacked either the callouses, or the muscle that would have protected his prior body.

"HEY!" she shrieked in his face as he hit the ground, "You could have hit me!" _She's not speaking English. The lip movements aren't right. But I understand it. Some of this body's skills have survived. Excellent. Hopefully whatever combat abilities it possesses survived as well._

"Just one advantage of the high ground. And that was with you fully aware I was there, because I told you I was. Perhaps being quiet has its advantages?" he suggested, shooting both of the squabbling children a pointed, and communicative glare. _She has silver eyes. That's weird. Not as weird as shapeshifting weapons, but weird._

Unfortunately, his appearance rather undercut the intimidation factor he was going for. Pyrrha flicked the spear and it shifted into a rifle. It was only with a massive effort that he kept from gaping at that impossible feat. _I wonder if this sword does anything useful. No way to ask, I'll have to check when I'm alone._ "We have a job to do, right?" she interjected as the other two began to wind up for further impressive screams. "And we don't need to attract any Grimm."

 _Grimm? Job? I could try to pretend I know what's going on._ His eyes flickered over the others, noting that they clearly understood the warning. _Grimm must be background knowledge, job is short term…and I just fell out of the sky, I have an excuse. It may also explain any personality changes._ "Sorry, remind me what we're doing out here?" He slid a hand through too-long hair as if probing for a bump and winced as he found one. "I think I whacked my head pretty good."

"Why didn't your aura protect you?" Pyrrha asked, sliding her rifle back into spear form and slung it over her shoulder, under the shield hanging from her back.

 _I could feign knowledge, but if it's something that would protect me…and she's surprised, but not shocked. This is embarrassing, not cover-blowing._ "Aura?"

"Don't you know what aura is?"

"No."

"For crying out loud, what sort of backwater are you from Vomit-Boy?" Weiss asked.

"Hey, be nice!" Ruby tried to interject, setting the two of them on each other.

Despite an embarrassing flush of the cheeks that he couldn't control, _Stupid teenage body_ , Jack focused on Pyrrha, who ignored the byplay.

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burden and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing someone was there?"

"I have believed I was being observed." _Which is not the same as knowing._

"With practice, our aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals, except Grimm."

"Ah."

"By bearing your soul outward, you can protect yourself from harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits of aura."

"A power source."

"If you want to look at it that way."

She stepped closer. _Too close._ Instinct wanted to either gain distance or take her out. He controlled it ruthlessly. They clearly thought him either too good natured, or too inept to be a threat, there was little benefit to correcting that misconception at this juncture. Her hand rose to his cheek. It wasn't in the right place for either a choke-hold or a neck-break, but only by extreme effort did he prevent himself from taking action. _There is an advantage here, or at least they believe there is. This is clearly something all of them believe in. I hope whatever Rambaldi's device did to bring me here doesn't effect this. Bit late to think of that now._ "Now, close your eyes and concentrate," she said. _Oh for fuck's sake! Seriously?_

"Okay," he said, relatively certain the hoplite-like woman was unlike to strike him down in front of the other two, though they were bickering so thoroughly that they might not have noticed. _Well, I'm definitely a teenager_ , he concluded as his voice cracked from the stress of the situation.

He let his eyes drift to what would appear to be closed, but would still provide a modicum of vision and focused on his other senses. If she moved, he would—

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality." _SHE IS FUCKING GLOWING! WHAT THE FUCK!_ "Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all." Her hand rose, but Jack was sufficiently surprised he didn't react. "Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." She bent over like she'd just run a marathon. _SPEAR NEAR MY FACE! CRAZY PEOPLE ALL AROUND! CRAZY GLOWING PEOPLE!_

"Are you all right?" he asked. _Can you assist me in completing whatever our task is here so we can get out of this forest?_

"I'm fine. I used my aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you know is your own," she stared at him and smiled. "You have a lot of it."

"So this will defend me?"

"Up to a point." _Hmm…well, that might explain their behavior. They expect to be able to survive a first strike._

"While we accomplish whatever our task is, which you were going to remind me of?"

"Find the temple, get the artifacts, form teams for Beacon Academy, and become Huntsmen and Huntresses!" You want to be on the same team?" Ruby asked eagerly, words blending together as she dropped out of her fight with Weiss like it hadn't even been occurring.

"Do we have a location for this temple?" Jack asked Pyrrha, rather than attempt to interact with the pint-sized motor-mouth.

"Nope. Sorry."

"I didn't see any significant breaks in the canopy while…arriving."

"Neither did I," Pyrrha admitted. "Sorry." _Excessive apologies. Easy to manipulate with accusations of misbehavior._

"Does anyone know the area?"

"Of the Emerald Forest? A Grimm infested land of nothing and nobody? No. We don't know the area!" Weiss said, with a mutter that sounded like an accusation that it sounded like the area a Vomit Boy might be from, but Jack chose not to hear that.

 _So we're in the middle of…Grimm (?) (enemy?) territory, with no idea of our location, our destination, or the local terrain. And I thought the CIA liked to withhold mission-critical information…_

"Headmaster Ozpin said it was somewhere in the northern part of the forest," Ruby remembered.

"Which would be helpful if we knew which part of the forest we were currently in. And which way was north!" snapped Weiss.

Before their bickering could resume full force, Pyrrha interjected. "Well, the initiation is held at the same site every year. There should be some signs I—we can fo-"

The sound of a trio of shotgun blasts filled the air. "Yang!" Ruby shrieked and began sprinting in the direction of the sound. Pyrrha followed her, moving into a position to cover her right flank, rifle suddenly back in her hands. _Fast._ _Very fast. Better to have allies than be alone. Especially allies that fast._

Without any visible hesitation, Jack moved to follow, regretting the fact that he lacked proper weapons (and any knowledge of what a 'Grimm' was). He could use a knife well enough, but a sword was not just an over-sized knife, he was fairly certain, and his combat training had not included fencing. A single semester of the sport back in college was the extent of his experience and he was fairly certain that flat open spaces to fight in weren't going to be common in the forest. Weiss followed more slowly. Fortunately, he could track her by the sound the very-definitively-not-outdoorsy girl made as she made her way through the overgrown forest. Still, having her at his back made his neck itch.

The shots continued, along with an impressively loud bellow of fury. _This Yang must be…large._ But by the time they arrived at the small clearing, the battle was over, a large black beast, with a white bone mask face lay dead. _Definitely not on Earth_ , while Ruby was jumping up and down, hugging a blonde girl. _Yang, presumably._ Jack examined the fallen beast, noting the wound in its back, from a blade, not the shotgun which had permitted Ruby to identify Yang's involvement in this fracas (which he could not see on her apparently unarmed person). That presumably meant that the second woman in the clearing was responsible for the dead beast. Dark haired, with a pretty bow on her head, she hung back from the squealing girls, holding an ironic detachment from the entire scene, in fact.

Pyrrha also hung back, though her examination of the pair was more envious then detached. Weiss was still making her way out of the underbrush. It was embarrassing how out of breath his body was. That run couldn't have been more than half-a-mile. This body was pathetically out of shape. Something would need to be done about that. He used his gasping to hide his examination of the two new girls. Yang first, as she was the more active. Tall and blonde, she was clearly athletic and enthusiastic. _Seen it before a hundred times with new recruits. She'll either grow into a hell of an operative, or die young. Or both, of course. Syd…Obviously close with Ruby. Can't be siblings, given the difference in appearance. Close friends, or maybe one's adopted? Or some weird wherever-this-is thing I cannot predict._

With that dispiriting thought he turned his attention to the other girl. Dressed in black and white, she wore a blade of her own, strapped to her back. _Withdrawn. Detached. Concerned. Hiding something she believes is dire. Interesting. No visible shotguns, but with the collapsing, converting, changing weaponry they use, that is less than helpful. Still, possibility of a third party in the area._

He turned to Pyrrha as Weiss burst out of the undergrowth and began to glare at the squealing pair, "Aren't we supposed to be retrieving artifacts, not attracting every Grimm in the area to us?" 

With a suddenness that shouldn't have surprised the father of a woman who was once a teenage girl, the full throng of girls turned on him instantly. The combined wattage of their glares would have melted him, if that were possible. _Which it might be in this_ ridiculous _world._

He ignored their glares. "So, I believe we were going to let Pyrrha try to find us a trail to the artifacts, unless someone else had a better idea?"

"They're this way," the girl with the bow said, indicating a direction which matched his perception of north.

"How do you know that?" Weiss asked, dubiously.

"I examined maps of the area before we were dropped here."

"I didn't even know we were coming here!" Ruby interjected, somewhere between praising the older girl for her preparation and complaining about her own lack of information.

"Well, that's what happens when you skip two grades and get added at the last minute," Yang said, throwing an armored arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "I'm so proud of you!"

Which Weiss took as an invitation to launch into an attack on Ruby's character and performance thus far, which prompted Yang to leap in in defense of Ruby. Before Jack's remaining, limited, patience could evaporate, he noticed that the black-furred beast which the others had killed was visibly decomposing, nay, disintegrating before his very eyes. It was only with a supreme effort that he didn't gape at that insanity. Fortunately, no one else noticed as Blake and Pyrrha had moved off to discuss which way they should go.

 _Wouldn't think you'd have to teach a forty year veteran of the Agency not to grandstand. But this definitely has been a learning experience._

 _Next time, Sloan, I won't pause to gloat._

Glynda Goodwitch watched on the scroll as Nora found Ren and approached Ozpin with the news as he stood on the cliff's edge staring out over the sea of green as if he could see his students without the aid of a scroll. Perhaps he could. Even after their decades working together, she was never sure of the extent of the Huntsman's abilities.

"Our last pair has been formed, sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy, I can't imagine those two getting along." _She'll wear the poor fellow out. Just teaching her is going to be wearing enough._ "Still, things could always be worse. Mr. Winchester's pairing with Mr. Thrush is sure to cause problems, given their respective disciplinary records."

"Mm…" Ozpin made the noise he always did when he didn't want to actually respond.

"Despite my concerns, Mr. Arc seems to have proven your admission decision correct. I suppose he's just one of those trainees who doesn't concentrate unless they're in mortal danger." _Maybe. I hate it when we get spies from other schools. I am getting that feel from him. Well, we'll just have to keep a close eye on him._

"Mm…" Ozpin took a sip of his drink and glanced down at his own scroll.

Weiss and Ruby almost tripped over each other as they each moved to draw a bead on the rumbling, approaching sound. The others managed to form a line with clear lines of fire. Except Jack, who had the good sense to take cover behind a nearby tree as he drew the blade hanging from his belt. Usually he'd have preferred to use just his hands rather than such an unfamiliar weapon, but making their way towards the temple, they'd run into a clutch of Grimm, large wolf-like creatures with sharp fangs and claws. Taking on something like that with his hands was begging to lose them and he didn't know enough about aura to know if it would protect him.

The engagement had demonstrated the impressive, if needlessly showy abilities of his comrades and the fact that everyone except him had ranged weapons. The rapier Weiss wielded was apparently capable of firing blasts of fire and ice. It would be nice to imagine his own blade did so as well, but it lacked the spinning selector Weiss used to control the weapon, _Potential sabotage point,_ and even if it didn't, he lacked the knowledge of how to set it to 'Shoot fire' not 'Explode messily.' As a result, Jack was stuck being the first line of melee defense, as he had no ranged weapons. That meant placing himself ahead, but well clear of, their firing line.

Fortunately, the Grimm appeared focused on the fighters shooting at them, permitting him to casually stab them in the back. His minimal skill with the blade was up to that task. This time, whatever was coming had to be significantly larger, given the volume. That noise also separated itself into roars and distinctively female shouts of glee and excitement.

A massive creature, like someone had taken a half dozen bears and combined them, then stuck a bunch of spikes all over it, roared into view, shaking and waving its stubby arms about. A flash of pink and white was visible behind it as it tried to dislodge the girl on its back. "Hold fire!" Jack yelled automatically. "Friendly downrange!" _For a given value of friendly._

At that point, the girl on its back brought a gigantic Warhammer down on its skull and hopped off. "Aw, look Ren, they're already friends! That's nice, but I've already got a best—" she looked around and moved so fast she almost seemed to vanish behind the mountain of slowly disintegrating Grimm, then reappeared dragging a vaguely Asian looking boy out, "friend! See!" she lifted him up with an impressive amount of ease and a disturbing lack of anything resembling sanity.

"Nora," the boy, _Ren_ , said, in the voice of one who has said it many times and expects to say it many times more, "please put me down now. One ride a day is more than enough."

Nora put him down with a grin.

"Did you just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked. Jack wasn't entirely sure if her tone was impressed or incredulous. Personally he was choosing not to speak, as nothing he could say was going to be helpful.

"Yep! The trick is to hold on really tight!"

"That…doesn't sound like a trick," Weiss responded. _Oh, thank god, everyone else recognizes she's insane too. This is not normal behavior. And they do have crazy people around at this…school. That may be useful as an excuse for my behavior, if necessary._ Indeed, they'd already given him shit for the full minute he'd spent staring at the _BROKEN_ moon, fully visible in the middle of the day.

That discussion went on for as long as Jack could stand, then he snapped and ordered them into a sensible formation, with Blake and Ren as their forward scouts, Pyrrha as their vanguard, Ruby and Weiss as flank guards, Jack as rearguard, while Nora and Yang acted as the heavies in the center. They made it to the temple without too much more bickering as he'd very carefully separated everyone who could potentially argue as best he'd could. Jack's temper was reaching its breaking point, fueled by teenage bickering and equally (and embarrassingly personal) teenage hormones, so it was a good thing that they agreed with a minimum of fussing over who should be in charge.

Fortunately, the fact that Jack was clearly the weakest fighter in the group made them more willing to take guidance from him. The rest of the trip to the clearing around the temple passed in what could be confused for peaceful contemplation only when compared to the discovery that the clearing was infested with a Nevermore. Which was the local's way of saying GIANT FUCKING RAVEN THAT CAN SHOOT FEATHERS AT YOU HARD ENOUGH TO CUT YOU IN HALF!

As Jack's perfectly reasonable suggestion that they wait until the thing went somewhere else to make its move was rejected as boring, the bickering over what to do resumed. Though, at least this time, it was occurring at a somewhat quieter volume. Jack took a moment to prepare his arguments.

Before they could come to a conclusion, Ruby broke for the temple, Jack wasn't in position to block her. Her weapon snapped into her hand as she raced forward towards the temple. _SHIT! IDIOT! TEENAGER! BUT I REPEAT MYSELF!_

"Covering fire!" he bellowed, cutting off Yang and, interestingly, Weiss from sprinting after the girl who'd broken cover. They obeyed the tone of authority automatically. _SHIT I'M THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT A GUN!_ He began to move forward, following the cheetah-fast girl. _At least the beast is tracking her._ The Nevermore flicked ten-foot-tall feathers at her, catching her cloak, though not her flesh and yanking her back off her feet. After a moment's thought, Jack bowled into her at full speed, ripping her cloak free and sending them sliding away, not coincidentally moving them off the path the circling back Nevermore anticipated. "Get the artifacts," he commanded, drawing his sword and slamming it against his shoulder plate while sprinting towards the treeline, carefully angling himself away from the Nevermore's flight-line.

Feathers slammed into the ground behind him, as he ducked into the tree line, never stopping his shrieking, clanging motions intended to draw the bird's attention (though seeing as how the fire of the throng of teenagers he'd left behind hadn't done it, he wasn't sure about its efficiency). _It doesn't matter if it works, it just has to look reasonable. Neither victory nor the girl matter, but I cannot lose credibility with these people. Yet._

As he ducked behind a thick tree and took a breath, he paused his clanging to be impressed by the body's lung capacity, though the burning in his legs and side was embarrassing for so short a sprint. A careful peak out revealed Ruby turning from the temple towards him, then there was a blur and she was beside him. A quick glance reassured him she was okay. "Out of harm's way, we'll circle to you! Fall back into the trees," he yelled, wincing internally as his voice broke.

Ruby looked up at him, triumph in her eyes as she held up a quartet of chess pieces, two white rooks and two white knights. "Got 'em!"

Jack held out a hand, "May I have those, Ms…sorry, what was your last name?" _Distract her with the question and get the 'artifacts'. Best I choose who gets the same ones given what they said about teams._

"It's Rose, Ruby Rose, but you can just call me Ruby, Juane," she said as she handed them over.

"Ms. Rose," his voice was smooth as ice. "why didn't you use that ability of yours to get the artifacts?"

"Umm…I didn't think of it."

"I see," Jack led them deeper into the forest in an arc towards where the other teenagers would be. "And you didn't wait for us to agree on a plan, because?"

"That was taking forever! Besides I knew I could do it." He could hear the grin in her voice, "And I was right. Mostly. Thanks for your help."

"Don't be. I didn't do it for you."

"Huh?"

"Let me tell you what I saw, Ms. Rose, I saw a girl who wanted to be _seen_ to succeed, more than she wanted to succeed and no one _sees_ a blur. I saw someone who endangered herself, the operation, and her comrades rather than take a moment to think. I did not take action to save that girl because she doesn't deserve saving."

Ruby's footsteps stopped behind him. He took two more steps to put more distance between them (not that it would matter if it came to violence) then turned to look at her. The girl's eyes were fixed on the ground and she was frozen. "I…I…I…didn't do that."

"I didn't say you did, Ms. Rose. I said that that was what I saw in your actions. Your motivations are your own. Perhaps you merely endangered us due to your carelessness, rather than your showboating."

"Why are you being like this, Juane?"

He forced emotion into his voice, picturing Syndey when she'd come to save him from torturous death at the hands of SD-6. "Because Ms. Rose, you have the ability to be tremendously powerful. The weapon you constructed is incredibly impressive, your combat skills are astounding, and that blurring ability of yours is beyond anything I've ever seen. You have the capacity to be amazing." _An amazing asset_. _Hence all the effort to cast myself as the wise mentor figure. Hmmm…I wonder what abilities the others have. Perhaps they will be useful as more than just camouflage._ "But only if you don't get yourself killed, or destroyed."

Silver eyes rose to meet his and her back straightened. "Thank you."

"Tell me, Ms. Rose, do you know the difference between the two states?"

"Huh?"

"Killed and destroyed?"

"No…" her eyes grew confused.

"You'd have been killed if that Nevermore had caught you. You'd have been destroyed if it killed one of us because of you. A word to the wise, Ms. Rose, your sanity," _and reputation_ , "are as important to safeguard as your body. Now, let's get out of here."

"You can call me Ruby."

His voice was ice again. "When you earn it, Ms. Rose."

The rest of the walk passed in silence as Jack weighed his options. _Nora and Ren-No. Don't do field work with the insane. Ruby and Weiss—powerful, but fractious. Yang and Blake—secretive and strong._ The choice was obvious. He held onto one of the knights himself and tossed the other to Blake. Secrets were always dangerous and always powerful. A flick of his hand provided the rooks to Weiss and Ren.

"All right! Way to go baby-sis!" _Bullshit!_ Yang said, trying to sweep her into the same enthusiasm that had marked their initial encounter, but Jack's conversation had grounded her too thoroughly for that. Yang's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she shrugged and decided to try to jolly her sister out of it. "Just a quick run back to the cliffs and we'll be good."

"Ooooo! We get to play again with the big birdie!" Nora squealed, hopping up and down. _Now that's just unsettling what with that warhammer…_

"Why would we do that, rather than circle around and approach the cliffs under the canopy?" Jack asked incredulously.

Yang, Weiss and Nora all gave him identical looks and the group devolved into further debate on the topic. Only by pointing out that they could come back and hunt Grimm without the rest of them if they wanted to, was Jack able to get them to leave. Ruby's unexpected support helped tip the balance as well.

Arvin Sloane stretched, surreptitiously touching each of the weapons he'd acquired over the last six hours. He'd landed in a good place, with an army almost within his grasp. Sure he wasn't 'in charge' of the army yet, but few people on Earth and no one on Remnant knew as well as he did how best to rule from behind the scenes. Still, both the people and the gear around him was…needlessly complex. That was an odd position for an acolyte of Rambaldi to take, but it was true nonetheless and it made him a bit uncomfortable.

The Rambaldi device itself had been a curiosity, one of the few he hadn't been able to figure out in more than thirty years of pursuing the prophet's designs and seeking to understand his genius. Triggering it had never been part of his plan, but Jack had forced his hand. _Jack. Did you survive long enough to make the transition? What was the exact radius of effect again? Less than two hundred meters. I doubt anyone else was around, it would be Jack or no one._ A slight smile moved his lips. _As it should be. I do hope Jack made it through. This will be awfully dull if he's not here somewhere. Best to assume he is and start taking precautions and looking for him._ His fingers drummed on the desk for just a moment, a nervous tic he stopped with an irritated thought. _This body has instincts and habits of its own…as will his. This is going to be…interesting_.

His fingers began to move again, investigating the technology of this world. He couldn't begin to look for what he needed until he knew how to cover his tracks. Still, time was not of the essence anymore. No one but Jack was hunting him and Jack had no more information about who Sloane was hiding inside than Sloane had about Jack's hiding body.

 **Author's Note: Okay, so things went a bit differently with Jack instead of Juane (or "John" as he still hasn't caught the distinction). Most of these flow from their** ** _very_** **different characters. First, Pyrrha/Juane and Weiss/Ruby don't separate. It's never explained exactly why they do in the series (side note, I choose to believe Weiss saw Pyrrha coming before leaving Juane behind, as otherwise, leaving him helplessly dangling from a tree in Grimm-infested forests is either too cruel or too ruthless for the Weiss herein).**

 **My theory is that once Pyrrha rescues Juane from the tree, he leads them off in a different direction, in order to prove he knows what he's doing and he wants to impress her/everyone. Jack is under no impression that he knows what he's doing (in this new world, at least) and will impress/disappoint/manipulate/use everyone as seems best to him. For the moment, safety in numbers seemed best.**

 **As they weren't off waking a Deathstalker or hitching a ride on a Nevermore, they were nearby to hear Yang's fight and join up. As for Ren/Nora, they still hitched a ride on an Ursa, cause, well,** ** _NORA!_** **but it was attracted to people as it ran aimlessly through the forest and this time the big cluster of people wasn't at the temple just yet.**

 **Two other minor changes are that Weiss wants to stick around, but that's because this time around her moments of awesome, by which she demonstrates her worth to her team and her partner don't occur. She still needs to prove herself. Also, they go back under cover of trees because, awesome as it is, personally when I'm running from a flying monster, I don't run into large open spaces. Now, in the original structure, there's the excuse that the Deathstalker could probably just knock the trees down, but no Deathstalker, so the tree canopy is as good as a cloak of invisibility.**

 **An internet cookie to anyone who successfully identifies whose body Sloane is in. I will not tell you who's right for a while, so feel free to keep guessing…**

 **Next Chapter: Jack goes back to school. He's a sixty-two year old CIA officer, surrounded by teenagers. Hormones, he'll ignore 'em.**

 **SPOILER:**

 **Jack is not, regardless of his hormones, going to get involved with anyone on his team, or Ruby's. No matter his body, he's sixty-two years old and is not going to date a teenager. I'm not sure he's going to get involved with anyone (at least in a truly romantic rather than seduction as infiltration way), but definitely no one who's younger than his daughter.**


	2. Chapter 2: Landing

**Author's Note: Italics are thoughts. Minor dialogue stolen from RWBY, season 1. Each section is written with one viewpoint character and the observations within are their own. They do sometimes miss things and they do, often, assign incorrect motives to one another. Especially those who think they're dealing with a teenage trainee, not a grandfatherly assassin.**

"Ruby Rose, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Weiss Schnee, the four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team Rhinoceros, led by…Ruby Rose." Weiss looked like someone had stolen her favorite toy. _Glad I didn't choose that pair. That's a time bomb waiting to explode._

"And finally, Yang Xiao Long, Juane Arc, Blake Belladona, Pyrrha Nikos, the four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Lambchop, led by Yang Xiao Long." With a few final parting words, he dismissed the students to their celebration, with a gentle warning that class started the next day at 0900.

 _Interesting. They either know a lot more about the students than I'd expect, or they watched our performance in the woods somehow. I didn't see any cameras or drones, but the tech here is significantly different then I'm used to, I'll need to look into it._

 _Priorities:_

 _1)_ _Eliminate Sloane_

 _2)_ _Survive_

 _Initial steps:_

 _1)_ _Gain a basic working knowledge of this world_

 _2)_ _Be able to search for Rambaldi devices and/or the materials necessary to recreate his devices by:_

 _a)_ _Gaining a sufficient understanding of their technology to be able to cover my tracks while searching electronically; and/or_

 _b)_ _Gaining sufficient influence over the local underworld to be able to coerce people to search physically/electronically in a manner which does not lead back to me._

 _Conclusion:_

 _I need additional information about this word. This is a school, it will have a library_.

Jack had made sure he was first in line to congratulate Yang, then slipped away while the rest of the team was doing that. He slid easily through the throng of students celebrating their initiation and, rather awkwardly, introducing themselves to the people they'd be working with for the next four years. Automatically he took steps to lose any pursuers in the crowd, without being aware of the existence of any such pursuers, then he was out of the auditorium where the party was being held and caught one of the staff. A polite inquiry got him directions to the library.

His belief that they were being observed in some fashion was confirmed when Professor Goodwitch appeared in front of him, without even bothering to pretend to be doing anything except waiting for him. _Interesting, are we supposed to know we're under surveillance, or does she simply think we're too stupid/naïve to figure it out?_ A polite nod to the woman, ignoring the crossed arms and the tattoo her riding crop was beating against her own side, and he tried to slip past her.

"And where are you going, Mr. Arc?" she asked, in a voice about as warm as glacier.

Only by main force did Jack prevent his own voice from sliding in that direction. Instead he kept it light, if not exactly teenageresque, "If you intended the auditorium as a cell, I think you forgot the bars," he let his eyes flicker over her frame. The woman was _tall_ , almost four inches taller than his own (admittedly new and unmeasured) height. The effect was probably extremely intimidating to his fellow students, but…Jack had always been bad at cowering, even when it was the right tactical move. And he thought capes were thoroughly stupid, though Sydney had corrected his viewpoint on the capabilities of people in high heels, "But perhaps not the guards."

She flushed at the implication and stepped forward, looming above him, arms uncrossing to free them, though her crop continued to beat out a rhythm, now against her thigh. Automatically he assessed the threat. _Unknown abilities, physically strong, larger than me. Deformation at top of right boot, slight hitch from object in small of back, both easily reachable by right hand. Probably very dominantly right handed. Evade to the left and strike hard. Skirt may bind and interfere with movements, or not, can't tell. Glasses may be worth removing, or they may just be an affectation, given how unstable they are the latter is most likely._ "I asked you a question, Mr. Arc."

"Yes, you did. And I'm asking what business it is of yours where I'm going. Have I violated some rule I am unaware of?" _This is foolish. Don't let yourself be riled. Be invisible!_ She opened her mouth to respond and Jack forced a false smile to his lips. "I apologize, Professor Goodwitch. Leftover adrenaline from the initiation. I'm just heading over to the library to get acquainted with it. Trying to get a head start on the classwork coming up."

"Then you won't mind an escort?" she asked, testing him.

 _Not at all, do feel free to have one waiting in my quarters when I finish my work._ "Of course not. I'd be glad of one, all these halls look the same." Which did not mean, despite the implication, that he was lost.

"Your scroll should have been uploaded with a map of Beacon," she said, eyes narrowing somewhat suspiciously.

 _Scroll? Must be some sort of electronic device if it's had a map uploaded…_ "Of course, but I can't be looking at a map every time I need to get anywhere. Better to just throw myself in. Especially since I don't have anywhere to be until tomorrow at oh-" _shit, they don't use military time,_ he faked a cough, "nine o'clock." Her eyes narrowed further, so she was basically squinting at him. "If you're looking to play tour guide, I certainly wouldn't say no. I assume this place has a gym and some classrooms stored away somewhere?"

"Of course," she guided him through the halls at what was clearly supposed to be an uncomfortable pace for the shorter man and pointed out a dozen halls leading to a dozen different locations. Despite being embarrassingly out of shape, Jack kept up and managed to conceal the growing stitch in his side as she took the long way around to the library.

She proceeded to observe him picking out books. Jack picked out very simple books and took a seat in the corner where he could see the entrances and put his back to a wall if he needed to. "Those are basic texts, Mr. Arc, I'm surprised they hold anything of interest to someone qualified to attend Beacon Academy."

"Then why are they in the library at Beacon Academy?" Jack asked, innocently.

"That's hardly the question. What's your interest in them?"

"It's always good to review basic materials. But, as you note, this is a new school for me. It's always interesting to compare how different texts and different schools cover the same material and what they think is important. Don't you find that to be true?"

"Alas, I lack the time to read every basic text put out on the topic of being a Huntress, as I am the deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy," she snapped.

"And yet you have time to watch me read. Should I be honored, or disturbed by this?" Jack countered mildly, not looking up from the book he was reading.

Peripheral vision noted her skin flushing, but she maintained control. "I always have time for my students. And another needs me now," she snapped, stalking away.

Jack tried to keep his eyes on his book, but teenage hormones would not be entirely denied and his head turned to watch her leave. _Impressive…library,_ Jack lied to himself then dug back into the book until he was certain he was alone. Then he carefully searched himself for this scroll. It took an embarrassingly long time, but the body's armor hadn't been properly fitted and the clothing was strange, the fabrics oddly smooth, in whole he wasn't sure which sensations indicated the scroll and which indicated something else.

Eventually he did find it. A white object about the size of a cell-phone, with no visible screen or buttons. An almost invisible seam ran down the center. After pressing it to no avail, he tried opening it. That worked. There was a large screen in the center. A yellow diamond was in the center of the screen. This time he tried to pull the diamond open. Alas, the correct motion this time was to press it. _Biometric lock, or unlocked?_ He wondered as icons began to appear.

The system was relatively intuitive, at least for someone who'd been forced to learn to use the cell phones, _electronic leashes,_ which the CIA insisted its officers use. There were indeed maps, which he promptly memorized, as well as class schedules and reading for the first day. It took him less than an hour to rip through that reading, mostly because he'd learned the fine art of summarizing material in his head as he read, eyes skipping to the relevant parts. With that done, he headed to the area labelled gym and attempted his usual workout.

That failed miserably. After an even more embarrassingly long time, he remembered he wasn't in his own body and attempted the exercises they'd put him through back when he started boot camp, not his own, personalized ones. That went better, though not well. A quick look around ensured he was alone and he spent a good ten minutes going over every piece of equipment on his body to see if it would transform into a gun. None of it did. Though the discovery that his sheath transformed into a shield was an interesting one. _That would have been useful to know this morning._ It also impressed upon him the importance of aura as the damn thing tried to bury itself in his chest when he finally found the mechanism to deploy it.

An hour of practice with the blade and shield gave him a smooth means of turning a sheathed blade into a held sword and shield without either dropping anything, or creating any obvious openings in his defenses. Still, if he truly meant to use the blasted thing, he was going to need training. Lots of it. Fortunately, he was in a school.

A quick (well, it was supposed to be quick until teenage metabolism got involved) stop in a small dining room, independent of the main cafeteria, filled his stomach (he had brought along another of the books he was reading and read most of it as he devoured enough food to feed a small village), before he retired to the dorm labelled as his own on the map.

Discovering that there were four beds was surprising. There was also a massive amount of luggage and two sets of uniforms and one set of pajamas for each of them. That confirmed that he would be rooming with his teammates. Three girls. _Definitely not on Earth._ Certain, teenaged, parts (well, part) of him, quite liked this idea. The rest of him ignored that bit, slipped into his pajamas, carefully placed his sword within reach of his bed and went to sleep before any of the other teammates could arrive.

Pyrrha was having fun. Yang and Blake were great, unintimidated by her reputation. Nora was a blast, Ren harder to get a read on. Ruby was overly energetic, but at least enthused by the same things that got Pyrrha going, weapons, fighting, tactics. Weiss was the only irritant, and only because she was so obviously set on trying to use Pyrrha to improve her own standing at Beacon. All too familiar with such attempts to leach off her, Pyrrha almost automatically avoided the other girl. Most of the others, except other leaches avoided her, too intimidated to approach.

The celebration was long and had broken into a sprawling party filling the cafeteria, with teams drifting out and back, searching through the halls for various things. A group of other students were gathered around a gaming console of some sort and others were sharing delicacies from home they'd brought.

Everyone was there, socializing and trying to claim an identity for their time at Beacon. Pyrrha didn't bother, as hers had already been claimed for her, merely by her presence. The absence of Juane was more surprising. The man she'd met before the initiation had been charmingly ignorant of her abilities and experience, but also almost painfully eager to claim a position of leadership. Even after his personality shift when in actual danger, she'd anticipated having to console him when Yang was appointed team leader. Instead he'd appropriately congratulated her, then vanished.

After some socializing, Pyrrha went to look for him, assuming she'd find him sulking somewhere. She failed completely. It wasn't until she returned to the party and was finally dragged off to bed along with Yang by Blake that she realized he'd gone to bed long since. _Who are you?_ was her last thought before drifting off to sleep herself.

Jack woke up, but didn't move, or change his breathing patterns. For a moment, he lay there listening, which told him that there were three other people in the room, either asleep, or who had practiced feigning sleep to the same high level of skill he had. He'd woken when they entered, but gone back to sleep when they crashed into their own beds and didn't approach his. Now his eyes slitted open and glanced at the clock which announced that it was 2:57 AM. Since Jack always woke up at 0600, unless someone woke him earlier, he now knew the time difference between the odd world of Remnant and Earth. It seemed somehow banal that the difference was about the same as travelling from his home in Los Angeles to Honolulu.

It took him almost five minutes to force his body to go back to sleep, as was his usual practice when adapting to a new time zone. Usually, however it was a much faster process. Of course, usually, he was not in the body of a teenage boy, alone in a room with three girls. Parts of him really wanted to be up and about. The rest of him overruled them ruthlessly and fell back asleep, only to be troubled by disturbing dreams about the white-faced creatures they called Grimm.

Still, he woke in silence at approximately 0600. After waiting for his eyes to adjust to the minimal light in the room, he rose silently. He knew his movements from the bed to the dresser were absolutely silent, but he still saw Blake's eyes flicker open and flash in the darkness, tracking his movements. Training kept him from looking directly at her, instead he kept her in his peripheral vision as he retrieved his 'uniform.' _It's actually not so bad, it's just not a uniform. As a suit, it's only irritating. Thirty years I wore a suit, and I never got used to voluntarily wearing a garrote around my neck. I can't believe that such a stupid piece of clothing was created independently on two different worlds._

He'd chosen a middle bunk, which meant he had to turn his back on Blake to reach the bathroom opposite the entrance, unless he was willing to back his way through the room. That made his back tighten up, despite the fact that his aura would protect him from at least the first blow, if she turned on him. A few moments later his bladder was empty, his hygiene taken care of (except for the shower which would come later) and the uniform was on. The fabric was light and breathed easily.

He slid out as silently as he entered and Blake's eyes slitted open again, eyes flashing. This time he could look in her general direction as he was heading for the door behind her bed. _She wears the bow to bed. Odd. She can see in the dark, reacts to movement even without noise, hides her reactions pretty well, eyes flash in the dark. Interesting._ Her body tensed as he approached her, hand moving stealthily towards something under her pillow, _Well, at least someone here has a sensible attitude about things,_ he thought as he slid past her without a glance and out the door, ignoring the prickling between his shoulderblades.

Jack had finished his workout, his shower and breakfast before 0730 and headed back to the dorm. There was movement inside, so he didn't bother with moving quietly. When the door opened they looked at him guiltily and the conversation ceased. _Wonderful, I'm the object of gossip_.

An awkward trio of greetings met his distinctly unamused glare. Pyrrha asked where he'd been, while Blake pretended not to care. "Preparing for the day," he said blandly.

There was an awkward pause as they considered the complete absence of anything resembling information in that response. Yang rallied magnificently, their team leader summoning her strength and cheerily informed him that they'd been unpacking, as if Jack could have missed the greatly diminished mound of luggage, though it had been replaced with an almost as large collection of empty luggage. The remaining bags must belong to his body.

"I prioritized breakfast and completing the first day's reading over unpacking. An error I will now rectify, team leader," Jack said, almost entirely concealing the irritation he felt at being commanded by a teenager.

Yang's eyes bulged dramatically and she appeared so crestfallen Jack almost took it for mockery before she spoke, "First day's reading?" she asked.

"It was sent to your scroll last night?" Pyrrha offered.

Yang grabbed for her scroll and slid through various messages from her friends, finally finding the brief message containing the assignments. "Shoot. Guess we'll be stumblebuddies together, huh Blake?" she asked, turning to her partner hopefully.

Blake shook her head slightly.

"Et tu Blakey?"

Blake nodded, equally slightly.

"Traitors! All of you!" Yang declaimed melodramatically.

"You still have an hour and a half. If you skip breakfast it won't be—" Pyrrha began as Jack decided to ignore the byplay and begin to examine 'his' belongings.

"HERESY!" Yang shrieked, turning on Pyrrha and flinging a pillow at the other girl. "Blake! She's trying to starve me! It's a coup! A mutiny! Protect me, partner!" she flung herself energetically behind the slighter girl.

Blake and Pyrrha stared at each other for a moment, before Yang's sheer enthusiasm dragged the other girls along.

Jack ignored the deliberate melodrama and began to unpack decidedly hideous clothes, a handful of books, and a few pictures. _The body's parents? Siblings? Friends? Unlabeled unfortunately. These others seem to barely know him and the school is a boarding school, still, communications with the family will be dangerous. I'll need to dig into his history. That will be fun_. Jack should not have felt any guilt over the fate of whatever mind had occupied the body before his arrival. Where there was no choice, there could be no guilt. And yet there was. Irritating. Jack knew enough about him to know that he should simply accept what he actually felt and deal with it. Avoidance was probably the best strategy here. Very common for young people who went away to school. _Not that Sydney needed that excuse…_

Unpacking was a simple enough matter, though, somewhat unsurprisingly he'd been left with minimal drawer and even more minimal closet space. After living with a wife and a daughter, Jack was used to packing his clothes into the minimal available space, however the intervening fifteen years of living alone had somewhat weakened that experience. Still, he'd lived out of a rucksack more than once he could fit everything in with only a minimum of discrete shoving.

About the time he finished, the epic battle between the usurper, Pyrrha, the queen, Yang, and her sometimes-loyal courtier, Blake, reached its conclusion with an explosion of pillows. Jack looked over at them, to find them locked in battle, which turned instantly to a friendly hug the moment they noticed him watching. "I trust my pillow is still fine?" he asked, before retreating to the bathroom to change back into his combat uniform, as they were supposed to wear that day.

Jack didn't flinch when he saw Professor Peter Port. But that was only because he didn't want to draw the elderly huntsman's eye. _I've seen people like that before. Rewrote his own history into a story with him as the hero so the blood doesn't stick to his hands. Don't know who he killed, or who he lost, but it left him broken and dangerous. Avoid if possible. Play into delusions if not._

None of the others, not even Blake, noticed it was an act. Despite the fact that he was an instructor at the premier monster-hunter academy, they all seemed to view him as something of a joke. After a few moments, he noticed everyone else was ignoring the, admittedly dull tale the professor was telling with no consequences. A few minutes after that, he retrieved a book of his own and continued his education on the world he was inhabiting, leaving only a fraction of his attention on the activity in front of him, it would be enough to warn him if the time-bomb in front of him exploded.

The call for volunteers did not produce any response from him. One thing his years in the army had taught him was never to volunteer. Weiss's eagerness to volunteer for battle against a boar-like Grimm was unsurprising, though the fact that she beat Yang, Nora and Ruby to it was.

Perhaps leadership roles were having the desired effect on the girls (except for Nora, who was too unpredictable to, well, predict). Watching Weiss's battle occur over the top of his book was tricky, especially since Pyrrha was watching him, either piningly, or suspiciously, he couldn't tell without closer examination, which seemed unwise, either way.

Weiss was impressive, though the fractures between her and Ruby had only grown more obvious and debilitating since the younger girl had been named team leader. Ignoring the girl's advice was one thing, letting it distract her so much she almost got gored was another. Despite the distractions, she finally used her magic— _Dust—_ to finish the Grimm off, prompting the professor to release them all ten minutes early. Since the morning consisted of three fifty minute classes with ten minute breaks in between, that left Jack with almost twenty minutes on his hands before the physical education class with Professor Goodwitch.

Jack fled swiftly from his teammates and the mad professor, sliding past the bickering Weiss and Ruby as he pulled his slate out and began to review the school's charter and rules. With the first day clearly under control, he needed to figure out a way to handle the surveillance and find the information he needed. To do that, he needed free time. And while the assignments weren't hard for him, they would take time, time he could not spare. He needed a way out without surrendering the— _So far_ —secure base of operations his body's previous occupant had gained for him.

 _I'm being followed._

"Ozpin made a mistake," Weiss snapped at Ruby, before pulling away. She spotted Juane's back as the other trainee moved away swiftly. Without quite knowing why, she found herself following him. A moment's though came up with a justification. _Obviously he shouldn't have been in charge of my team, but he or Pyrrha should have been in charge of their team. Yang? Does Ozpin owe their father money or something? SO UNFAIR!_ She followed him, seeking a companion in her misery.

 _Where's he going?_ She thought as she turned a corner and almost ran into him, hands hanging loose by his side. Soulless blue eyes met hers with an indifference that drove her back a step, hand falling to the hilt of her rapier. "Can I help you, Ms. Schnee?"

"No," she forced her voice not to waver. _This was a mistake_.

"Come now, Ms. Schnee, you followed me for a reason."

"I was—wasn't following you."

"So you decided to take four rights in a row because you wanted to take a little tour around this classroom?" Juane asked innocently.

"I—" _I did! He knew I was following him!_ "was just wondering how you were taking Yang's elevation to the rank of team leader. I didn't see you at the party, or anywhere around your team, or your partner."

Juane tilted his head. "I see. You want to know why Ruby was named team leader."

"I didn't—"

"And even more, you want to know why you weren't."

"I—"

"So instead of asking the Headmaster, who made the decision, you come to me."

"Stop interrupting me!"

"Well, at least you aren't entirely dense."

The rapier slid out an inch before she remembered the consequences of attacking another student at Beacon.

"No, not _entirely_ dense," he said with a smirk.

 _This was a mistake_. "You'd know dense!" she managed, then turned on her heel to stalk away.

"So you don't want an answer to your questions?" he asked her back.

"Like you know."

"Oh, but I do. During out little foray into the forest, Ruby was impulsive, acting without forethought and endangered herself without a second thought."

"Exactly why she can't be in charge!" Weiss agreed, snapping around to face him again.

"And do you think being in charge of three other trainees and responsible for their well-being might cause that behavior to change?" Juane asked.

Weiss didn't have an answer for that.

"As for yourself, you couldn't be in charge because you're too used to being in command. You need to learn to convince people, rather than command them and to follow orders."

Weiss winced at that. "Then what about you? What's your character flaw that means you landed where you did?" _Ass!_

"It's hardly complicated. I'm by far the weakest fighter on our team. Appointing me team leader would permit me to remain so by assigning the difficult and dangerous tasks to others. I assume the Headmaster also believes that social pressure from the rest of the team will induce me to try hard to become stronger."

"And you're just fine with that? Ozpin playing you like a puppet?" Weiss snapped.

"The Headmaster may attempt to manipulate me all he likes, I will not pull against his strings for no purpose. When my team needs to act, I can and will arrange it so that they act in the fashion I believe correct. I do not need to be team leader for that. Why do you?"

"I—" Weiss paused. _Because I'm a Schnee. For my father. For my name._

"When you know what you want the team to do, you'll know if you need to take command, or if," Juane's blank face twisted with the smallest of smirks, "strings, yours or Ozpins, for we all use strings, will be sufficient. Until you know, command would be merely an empty and pointless honor."

Weiss stared at him for a moment. "When we first met, I thought you were ridiculous." Juane's face resumed its blankness. "Now I realize, you are _weird_!" she stomped off, muttering to herself about the insanity of the whole idea of an empty or pointless honor.

 _Perhaps I should keep moving_. _No. I'm not having that man at my back without any witnesses around_. "Enjoy the show, Professor Port?" Jack caroled.

"Not as much as the earlier one. That girl has the blood of a true huntress in her. You however…your advice was not that of a huntsman. It was that of a spy."

"Not a very good one, to act so visibly, in front of you, no less."

"Would it be better to do so in front of one of the other professors?" Port asked.

"Don't play the fool with me, Professor, I know a killer when I see one. But, in the interest of escaping this encounter alive, I will tell you, I am not spying on Beacon Academy. I am not spying for any power on Remnant. I am exactly what I appear, namely a man who's compensating for his weakness with his intellect. Now, I have to get to my next class, will you interfere?"

"Of course not, Mr. Arc! You are indeed, most cynical, to imagine that I, a huntsman of the highest caliber would—"

Jack was gone, having backed around the corner and then retreated to the next class, relieved to be in amongst a throng which would probably keep the mad professor from following him. His relief faded somewhat as he realized that Professor Goodwitch had not taken their previous encounter with good humor, as she demonstrated by pitting him against Nora in the first bout of the class.

That was unpleasant. Despite the girl's madness, she flattened him easily enough. He got a few strikes in, mostly because she didn't bother with defense, but not enough to stop the match from being embarrassingly one-sided. At least it gave him an excuse to go looking for someone to tutor him in swordplay. It also gave him another example of their technology and the power of the aura. Practicing with naked blades was a dangerous thing back home, but here it was commonplace and clearly they could measure the aura very accurately, calling off the bout when his dropped to a point where it would not defend him from the next attack and calling him down off the fighting platform to join his fellows in the seats, to observe the next bouts.

Then came history class, which was most notable for the fact that Professor Oobleck was constitutionally incapable of pausing for any length of time and seemed to not need to breathe during his lectures. Then came lunch, during which he could not find a way to avoid his 'teammates' without directly insulting them. So instead he ate and read yet more of information regarding the functionality of scrolls and electronic security. He'd never been an expert in computer security, being both too old and not particularly interested, but he knew enough to handle himself, at least on Earth. Here, it was somewhat more difficult.

He did pry his nose out of his book long enough to ask if any of them knew anything about swordplay. To his utter lack of surprise, Pyrrha did and she volunteered to teach him. A quick acceptance and he had plans in the afternoon after classes were over. _Irritating. I'm attempting to clear my schedule, not add to it. Still, the weapons are apparently meaningful enough that I can't simply_ visibly _switch out my sword for an M-16, even after I have the resources to have one made. Not without raising questions I don't want to answer._

Then he had an afternoon of dull classes, field medicine, demolitions, and basic investigative techniques. They weren't bad classes, but none of them were anything he wasn't fully qualified in. Which gave him an idea…

 **Author's Note: Sorry about the team names. If you can come up with something better, please let me know.**

 **Professor Port is an interesting character. I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on Jack's interpretation of the man, but he has survived to a ripe old age as a huntsman, being visibly older than any of the other huntsmen we see. In thinking about him, all we know are a couple of, frankly not particularly impressive, stories about Grimm hunting and that he teaches Grimm Studies. However, for any huntsman, that really ought to be basic knowledge.**

 **It makes me think that maybe he spent the bits of his career that aren't so fun to talk about dealing with people, not Grimm…interesting possibilities there…**

 **I know there's no chairs in the fighting arena, but I choose to ignore that, as leaving students standing for a class seems silly.**

 **Comments/Reviews are always welcome.**


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